Gone
by UnknownTitans
Summary: ONESHOT - What if it was Robin who had chased Warp into the portal in the episode "How Long is Forever?" instead of Starfire.


**Gone**

 **Starfire POV**

Seeing my friends fall to the ground, I saw that it was just me and Robin who remained standing, taking to the air I hurled a Starbolt at Warp and he nonchalantly swung his arm deflecting my blast straight back at me. As it collided with my stomach I feel from the air with a thump, bashing my head against the hard floor. My ears rung and my vision blurred for a few moments as I recovered from the impact, soon my senses had returned to me and I quickly sat up, focusing my attention on Warp. With the clock in hand he put a hand to his chest opening a portal in front of him, "Tah tah, Titans. I have enjoyed our time together but I've got a very bright future ahead of me" he said with a victorious grin turning to face his portal. As I began to climb to my feet I noticed something in my peripheral vision, Robin had climbed up from the ground and was sprinting after Warp.

"You're not getting away, Warp!" Robin yelled, he grabbed onto the back of Warp in an attempt to drag him back but his momentum caused him to stumble forwards pushing Warp and himself through the portal.

I was already up and flying at full speed towards the portal, reaching my arm out I readied to grab hold of Robin's cape, "Robin!" I shouted to alert him. It wasn't until I had bumped into the back wall of the museum that I realised I had failed, I stared at my hand empty hand in shock and then snapped my head around to look at where the portal once was. Raven, Beast Boy and Cyborg had gotten to their feet and all of them shared the same look of confusion, "Robin?" I asked again, this time my voice was small and shaky. I could feel tears pooling in my eyes as I continued to watch hoping with all of my heart that the portal would re-form and Robin would step through. It took me 3 hours to finally accept that wasn't the case, the other Titans had not said a word to me as we sat and waited. They could see the look of misery on my face as I continued to try and reassure myself, eventually something inside snapped and my strong demeanour shattered with it, sobs racked through my body as I buried my head into my knees. I could feel Raven's gentle hands as she tried to comfort me but sadly her attempts were ineffective. My mind raced with thoughts of what had happened to my best friend, was he trapped in the future somewhere? Was he alone? Then a thought came to me that caused my heart to skip a beat, was he dead? All of us combined were no match for Warp let alone just Robin, had Warp murdered him? My crying had become hysterical at this point and I heard Raven softly speak her mantra before my vision went dark.

I awoke in my bed with the morning light beaming through my window, there was a few moments where I believed the events to have been a dream but quickly I noticed that I was still in my uniform and the cataclysmic revelation came back to me. I questioned whether it was even beneficial to get up at all, maybe I could go back to sleep and when I awake Robin would be back? Fresh tears began to silently run down my cheeks as I already knew the answer to that question. The others continued to remain positive, they monitored communications to make sure that Robin wasn't trying to contact them for help from somewhere it was an extremely small chance but they were willing to try anything. For me it was like I already somehow knew his fate, he was either lost in time somewhere with Warp or he was dead I hoped that by telling myself this it might help me accept it but it didn't, it just strengthened the idea that the love of my life was gone and he wasn't come back.

Since that day cracks had been forming in the team, we argued a lot more than we ever used to, surprisingly it was myself that would start most of the arguments. Initially they were about Robin but recently it was like I was purposefully looking for a fight with anyone I could, my once cheery positive self was gone, disappeared alongside Robin. Cyborg was the target most of the time, he had taken over leadership and it was something I just couldn't accept, I couldn't accept that we had to have another leader, I couldn't accept that he was Robin's replacement, I couldn't accept that Robin needed a replacement at all. I would purposefully ignore his commands in battles or even outside of them just because he had voiced them, I wanted a reaction from him, I wanted him to turn the topic back around to Robin just so that I could scream my heart out at him for daring to mention his name even though it was what I wanted. I crossed the line one day when I let my anger bubble to the top and I had hit him, I regretted my action straight away, in that moment it was like the fog had cleared and I saw the monster I had become but it was too late.

Cyborg had left that day and I had been the one to make him. Beast Boy had followed soon after, for days he wouldn't even look me in the eyes, he was disgusted in me for what I had done to his friend… _MY_ friend and I didn't blame him, I was disgusted in myself. In my misery I had driven 2 members of my family away, the Rekmas that I desperately wanted to avoid was something I had caused myself. Raven was the only one who remained, she had been witness to all of my outbursts but Raven could feel my true emotions, she knew that I was hiding my sorrow and misery behind a wall of anger. She stayed because she knew that sooner or later that wall was going to crumble and she would need to be there to help me put the pieces back together. The wall had collapsed the day after Beast Boy left, the anger had reverted back to misery and pain, with my happiness starting to die so also did my flight. Raven had been looking at an apartment for the two of us to move into, for me to try and move past what had happened we needed to get away from the emptiness of the tower.

Bruce Wayne had generously transferred a large amount of money to support us for the foreseeable future, it had crushed me when a few days after Robin's disappearance, we had to tell Bruce that his son was gone and we didn't know if he'd ever come back. He had obviously made efforts to try and locate Robin, the Flash had a big role in this, tirelessly traversing the timeline to attempt to find him but his searches came up empty. There was no way of knowing if they had ever reached Warp's future or if they had ended up somewhere else, the hollow look on Bruce's face at this realisation was something I don't think I'll ever forget. there was a funeral held in Gotham for Dick Grayson, the story was that he had become terminally ill recently and Bruce had kept quiet about it to respect Dick's wish for privacy. Obviously, there was no body inside of the casket but that did not stop the masses of people who had come to attend the funeral of the titled "Prince of Gotham". Cyborg had developed hologram rings for us so we could all attend the funeral without publicity but I had left before the casket had arrived, I wouldn't accept the finality of it, I wouldn't say goodbye like this to my best friend when he could still be alive somewhere. A small statue of Robin had also been created and placed at the bay overlooking Titan's tower so that the city could honour their 'fallen' hero.

Over 5 years had passed before myself and Raven began to patrol the streets of Jump City again, for a long time I had planned to return to Tamaran. I thought that the distance would help me move on but I realised that I had a duty to the city that had become my home, Robin was gone and so I would continue to carry the flag, Jump City would not lose another of its protectors. We kept the city as safe as we could and doing so helped bring some joy back to my life, I knew that Robin would be proud of what we had accomplished and it helped me strive onwards, my flight returning was an important symbol of this. But just as there was good days there was also bad, sometimes I would get lost in my daydreams and I would allow myself to picture my life with Robin here. I would envision us being engaged and living together in an apartment overlooking the bay, I would picture our wedding day surrounded by our friends and loved ones. One particularly bad day had led me to envision our life with a child, a little girl no older than 3 or 4 with pitch black hair like her father and my green eyes. I could felt hot tears leaking down my cheeks as I imagined him playing with her in our fantasy home, but that's all it was, all it could ever be…a fantasy. Sobs broke free as my haven was cruelly torn from me, I thought I had been making progress but I realised in that moment more than ever before how much I had loved him. For Tamaranean's it wasn't as easy to fall out of love with someone as it was to fall in love, love didn't fade over time or suddenly die, it was a constant which meant that the loss of a partner was even more devastating than it was to people from Earth. My heart would eternally belong to Robin and because of this my feelings of pain may never subside, taking a long breath I wiped my eyes. It was because of my love for him that I would continue my work and the legacy he left behind, I would not let my sadness slow me down.

* * *

 **Third Person POV**

20 years had passed in the blink of an eye as a bright portal opened on one of the snowy streets of Jump City. Two men fell through the breach but quickly rose to their feet once more.

"Where are we, Warp?" Robin growled

"You bufoon! You damaged my suit during travel, we could have been sent anywhere!" Warp bit back, he tapped a panel on his gauntlet "thanks to your meddling we are 20 years in the future…decades too early for my liking"

Robin climbed to his feet and readied his staff, "Well you're gonna take me back to my time and return the clock whilst you're at it"

Warp smirked, "Oh am I? I think I'd much rather just kill you here and be on my way, besides everyone will believe you to be dead"

Robin spotted Warp's shoulder cannons charging up and he quickly rolled out of their line of fire, tossing birdarangs at the man he growled as each collided with Warp's forcefield and bounced off. He dove once more, avoiding another barrage of projectiles, he weaved in and out of Warp's range as he closed in on him before he successfully landed an impact with his staff to Warp's chest.

Warp slid back a few feet but quickly recovered blasting Robin onto his back, he kicked away the bo-staff and placed one foot down on Robin's stomach, holding him to the ground. "Any last words relic?" He aimed his arm at Robin and a small arm cannon appeared from his gauntlet and began to charge, however a volley of green energy blasts collided with Warp knocking him into the side of a building with a thump. A blur of purple and red darted towards him, but he quickly flicked another switch on his suit, phasing himself into the ground beneath as her fist collided into the ground he once sat.

Robin stared in surprise at Warp's attacker, the female figure turned quickly on her heel and dashed over to where he was still laying. "Robin?" the shocked woman spoke.

Robin's vision began to clear and he looked up at a face he could recognise anywhere, the same dazzling green eyes and the mane of red hair. He could tell she was older but 20 years had been excessively kind to her, she was still as radiant and beautiful as the last time he had seen her. "Starfire…" he said with a startled gasp

Starfire was frozen in shock as she looked upon her time-displaced best friend, he didn't look a second older than when he had disappeared 20 years ago. She didn't know how to react at all, she had long since abandoned hope of his return but somehow he had managed to. She opted to remain silent as took in the youthful vision of him once more.

"Has it really been 20 years?" Robin asked, his response was a small nod of the head from Starfire and he gave her a sad smile. "Still as beautiful as ever, Star"

Starfire felt an influx of emotions returning to her, feelings that she hadn't pondered since he had disappeared. Too many different voices spoke in her head and before she knew what was happening she had wrapped her arms around him desperately, she buried her head into his shoulder and allowed a few tears to spill down her cheeks. "You could not possibly understand how good it is to see you again"

Robin wrapped his arms around her as well, as challenging as that was since she was at least a foot taller than him. "I always find a way back to you Star"

She leaned back to look at him, tears still pooling at her eyes and without thinking she pushed forwards pressing her lips to his, not even awaiting a reaction she poured out all the years of loneliness and misery into that kiss. After a few moments, he began to kiss her back and she felt a long forgotten part of her heart began to beat again, butterflies fluttered in her stomach and it felt like no time at all since she sat together with him on the Ferris wheel watching fireworks for the first time. She pulled away from him once more and smiled at the matching red hue on their cheeks, and then suddenly her happiness came crashing down. She backed away from him slowly, "No! I shouldn't- I shouldn't have done that-" she stammered in a panic.

Robin stepped towards her with a worried expression, "It's okay Star, what's wrong?"

She covered her face with her hands, "I shouldn't have kissed you…you're too young. I was taking advantage of you…"

"No, you weren't taking advantage of me" Robin replied firmly, he placed one of his hands comfortingly over hers. "If it weren't for Warp I'd have been here with you"

Her eyes shimmered slightly and she gave him a soft but sad smile, "I only wish you had been…"

"Where are the others?"

Starfire turned away from him, "Gone…only Raven remained with me"

Robin gulped slightly, "Where did they go?"

"I shunned them away" she replied with a sniffle

"What?" he asked, shocked

"When you disappeared…I had lost the person I cared the most about, I could not handle my grief and it turned into anger…In this anger I caused Beast Boy and Cyborg to leave."

"Star…" he replied attempting to be comforting. "This world isn't right, we need to find Warp again and make him fix this"

"How would he fix this?" she replied hopelessly, "Warp said so himself that time is a written in stone and cannot be altered"

Robin straightened his posture, "None of this was supposed to happen, I refuse to believe that this is time's normal course. Warp's meddling has created this timeline so he can undo what he has done!"

"Even so, how would we defeat him? The two of us are no match for his advanced technology, he will defeat us like he did before"

"Well this time it won't be just the two of us", he reached to his belt and un-clipped his communicator. "this time there will be five of us", he opened his communicator and activated an emergency signal and smiled as he saw the gem on Starfire's gorget flash.

Starfire gasped, "The signal from your communicator still functions?"

"The frequency never changed so the signal will reach Raven, Beast Boy and Cyborg's communicators"

Starfire knotted her hands together in worry, "I do not believe Cyborg or Beast Boy would come, they will not wish to see me after how they left"

Robin took one of her hands and squeezed it reassuringly, "I'm gonna make this all right again, even between you guys"

She gave him a hopeful smile, "But how will we find, Warp? He is likely making repairs to his suit so he can time travel again"

Robin held up his communicator again, "When we were falling through the timestream I put tracker on Warp's suit to make sure he couldn't escape when we reached his time" he smirked as he saw the tracker began to pulse on his communicator, "luckily for us he never noticed it"

* * *

The tracker led them to the "Metro Arts Technologies Museum", rather fitting for Warp to be hiding in the exact place this string of events had begun. Robin and Starfire crept quietly through the building until they spotted the flickering light of Warp's repairing tool. A pair of guards stood frozen like statues in the middle of the room as they had attempted to arrest the time travelling criminal. A starbolt knocked the repair tool out of Warp's hand and it laid sizzling on the ground. He growled in anger and began to charge his shoulder cannons, shot after shot blasted out and the two Titans dodged and weaved between each of the energy blasts. Robin tossed a smoke bomb into Warp's face and he was blinded by the dark cloud, he continued to still fire in his temporary blindness but the energy blasts completely missed their target and Starfire dove in grabbing one of the small cannons and ripping it from his armor. The smoke cleared and Warp's other cannon fired knocking Starfire to the ground.

"Star!" Robin called running to aid her, receiving another of Warp's blasts.

Warp grinned and readied to fire once more when a beam of blue energy collided with him sending him tumbling across the room. Starfire and Robin turned to see Cyborg, 20 years older but still as strong as ever. "Heard you folks were having a party, thought you would at least wait till I got here before you started with the Pinata" he said with a smirk, "nice to see you again Rob, still as short as ever I see"

Robin returned his cybernetic friend's smirk, "We were just warming him up"

Starfire walked towards her old friend, "Cyborg…I, I am so very sorry…what I said to you was wrong-"

Cyborg held his palm out in front of him interrupting her, "That was a long time ago Star, me and BB had forgiven you years ago, we were all going through a bad time and we shouldn't have split apart"

"I'm sorry to interrupt your little family reunion" Warp said charging his cannons once more, he was cut off when a large green lion jumped at him swiping at the core on his chest plate before running over to join the rest of his team. Warp growled and aimed his arm-cannon directly at Beast Boy but dark energy engulfed his suit and within moments he found himself being hurled through the air and colliding with a wall.

Raven hovered over to her team and they all shared a proud smile, "Digging the white cloak, Rae-rae" Beast Boy smirked

"Baldness is really in season" she replied with a grin

Beast Boy sighed sadly and rubbed at his head, "Awh, do you guys have to keep bringing it up?"

Their attention shifted quickly as they spotted Warp opening another portal readying to escape, "It seems my time has come" he said, throwing one of his disabling devices at the group. Starfire reacted like lightning and focused all her energy into a single starbolt before hurling it at the device. It melted straight through the device and collided with the core on Warp's chestplate causing it to short-circuit. "No!" he screamed as his chrono-stabiliser began to fail and his timeline meddling caught up with him as his body reverted back to being an infant, the Titans stared in shock and disbelief at what they had just witnessed.

The portal began to shrink in size and Cyborg stepped quickly forwards, "We need to get you home Rob!" he disconnected the Warp's core from his armour and connected it with his cannon allowing him to stabilise the portal. "Robin, Go!" he commanded.

Robin looked back at his aged friends and his heart broke as he saw the tears leaking down Starfire's face, "No, I'm not going…I won't leave you guys again!"

"There isn't time for this man! Move it!" Cyborg commanded again

Starfire stepped forwards, her eyes shimmered with tears "You need to go, Robin" she said sadly handing him the clock

Robin reached for her hand, "I'm not leaving you again, Star"

"You must if you wish to correct this, you can make this right Robin"

"But if this is just a possible timeline then going back might not fix this world"

She nodded sadly, "That may be the case, but even so you must repair your world"

He turned so that he faced all of them, "How do I fix this? How do I stop this future?"

The other Titan's looked at him in silence and he felt a lump in his throat, the only thing he could do was hope, hope that any actions he made now could prevent this. He turned back to Starfire and placed his hand against her cheek, "I won't let this happen to my world, I promise you". He leant forwards and kissed her gently, before leaning back "I'll make this right"

She tried her best to smile, "I know you will, Robin. I only ask that when you get back you tell her how you feel"

"I promise" he said with a smile, stepping away he moved towards the portal and turned to look at the bittersweet smiles of his friends. Turning back he stepped through the breach and the world spun around him.

* * *

Soft crying echoed through the dark museum as the alien princess sat against a wall with her head buried in her knees. The other Titans had attempted to comfort her for the last few hours since Robin had disappeared through the portal but even they had begun to worry for their leader's safety. It had been a struggle for even the five of them to take on Warp but they doubted that Robin alone could battle him. In an instant the dark room was lit up by a portal opening and then from the bright light emerged Robin, he stumbled forwards onto his hands and knees and relief washed over him as he spotted his friends.

Starfire's eyes shot up to look at the figure and a dazzlingly bright smile took over her entire face, she climbed quickly to her feet and dashed towards him. He returned her smile and as they reached each other they quickly met in a tight embrace. Starfire buried her head in the crook of his neck and began to rub her hands up and down his back like she was trying to trying to remedy a non-existent wound. Eventually after almost 5 minutes of uninterrupted hugging she spoke, "You are unharmed yes?"

Robin smiled, "I'm fine Star"

* * *

"And then the older Star handed me the clock and I entered the portal" Robin said, finishing his recap.

"Bald! You're telling me I'm going to be bald?" Beast Boy asked in a panic

"Guess Star was right about all that Rekmas stuff?" Cyborg noted sadly

"I had always feared that the Rekmas would one day come true, it seems like it may be inevitable" Starfire stated sadly.

"I don't think so, Star" Robin replied thoughtfully, "by bringing the clock back I've already changed the timeline, that means that we can alter the rest of it"

Raven nodded in agreement and turned to Starfire, "So…Is it too late to do this 'Festival of friendship' thing?" she asked using her powers to connect the small bells together once more.

"Oh, it is never too late!" Starfire replied happily

Cyborg eagerly put the a of the bells around his neck, "Happy Blorthog!" he cheered enthusiastically

"I thought it was 'Blort Hog'?" Beast Boy asked in confusion

"Okay, I feel like a windchime" Raven commented as the bells around her neck jingled

"Hey Star? Does pizza count as part of Blorthog tradition?" Cyborg asked eagerly

Starfire giggled, "I am sure that would be acceptable"

With a cheer, Cyborg and Beast Boy sprinted from the room already bickering over what toppings they were going to get on theirs, with Raven following behind. Starfire went to move towards the door when she felt Robin's hand holding her arm, "What is it, Robin?" she queried.

Robin felt his cheeks get warm but he focused, he had made a promise and he was going to keep it. "I didn't tell you guys everything I saw in the future, but Starfi- the older you I mean wanted me to give you something"

One of her small eyebrows raised in curiosity, "What is it that you wish to give me?"

"Close your eyes" he instructed with a smile, he waited for a moment but before he could talk himself out of it he pushed his face to hers and kissed her gently, Starfire let out a surprised muffled squeak and he began to move away from her when he felt his exit blocked as her arms snaked their way around his neck and she began to heartily kiss back.

He had promised his friends that he would fix their future and a promise was a promise after all.

 **The End**

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

This story was requested by **lightdusk**.

This is probably the longest one-shot I've wrote but It needed to be this long to cover all the parallels with the episode.

I have a couple of stories planned out at the minute and I've wrote bits for both of them so expect them at some point in the near future.

If you want to suggest any ideas to me then please do so at my Tumblr "unknowntitans", you can also follow me there because I'll sometimes post about things I'm writing or updates for stories.


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